Fecundation in Orchidee and Asclepiadee. 687 
account of Ophrys apifera, correctly delineates and describes the 
pollen masses, called by him antherz, the glands at their base in- 
closed in distinct cuculli or bursiculz, and the stigma, with the 
surface of which he represents the masses as coming in contact. 
In his second volume, the two lateral adnate lobes of the 
stigma, and the auriculz of the column of Orchis mascula, are 
distinctly shown; and these auricule, now generally denomi- 
nated rudimentary stamina, are also delineated in some other 
species of Orchis afterwards figured in the same work. 
In 1793, Christian Konrad Sprengel* asserts that the pollen 
masses are applied directly to the secreting or viscid surface on 
the front of the column, in other words to the stigma, and that 
insects are generally the agents in this operation. 
In 1799, J. K. Wachtert supports the same opinion, as far as 
regards the necessity of direct contact of the pollen masses with 
the female organ ; and this observer was the first who succeeded 
in artificially impregnating an Orchideous plant, by applying 
the pollen to the stigma of Habenaria bifolia. 
In 1799 also, or beginning of 1800, Schkuhr ł{ takes the same 
view of the subject, and states that the pollen masses, which 
resist the action of common moisture, are readily dissolved by 
the viscid fluid of the stigma. 
In 1800 Swartz§, in adopting the same opinion, notices 
various ways in which the application of the pollen may be 
effected in the different tribes of this family, repeats the state- 
ment of Schkuhr on the solvent power of the stigma, and in 
Bletia Tankervillie describes ducts which convey the absorbed 
fluid from that organ to the ovarium. | 
In 1804, Salisbury|| asserts that he had succeeded in im- 
* Enid. Geheim. p. 401. + Romer Archiv. ii. p. 909. 
i Handbuch ii. p. 192. § Act. Holm. 1800 p. 134. 
| Linn. Soc. Transact. vii. p. 29. 
VOL. XVI. 4T pregnating 
